Shifting Terrains of Citizenship: Undocumented Community College Students and the Politics of the “Undeserving” Immigrant

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: The Tensions Between Students’ Rights and Citizenship as Inclusion

Abstract

Recent federal and state-based legislation has created meaningful opportunities for undocumented students. Yet, drawing on DeGenova’s concept of “illegalizations”, a moment of legislative opening for some also signifies a tightening of the boundary between “deserving” and “undeserving” immigrants. This paper considers the ways in which the shifting political terrain around educational access for undocumented students interacts with experiences of “illegality” among non-DACA/DREAM-Act-eligible undocumented youth who do not fit neatly into the “deserving immigrant” construct. Drawing on interviews conducted with undocumented community college students in California, this paper seeks to understand how racialization, criminalization, and “illegality” shape the lives of undocumented students who are deemed “undeserving” within this conventional discourse in relation to a changing political and legislative landscape around immigration.

Author

• Genevieve Negron-Gonzales, University of San Francisco